Chocolate cake

Chocolate.

I recoil ever so slightly when, upon finding out I'm into cycling, an "ah-ha" moment washes over people wondering how I lost and keep off all this weight. Scanning for some sort of easily explainable reason I could possibly drop more than 70 pounds, they finally pounce on the fact that I ride a bike, and to them, it explains it all.

"Oh, so that's how you stay so thin," they'll say, or some variety.

What a strange time and space we occupy where it's simply unbelievable that someone could lose a ton of weight without being on some strict diet or being a kettle-bell throwing fitness freak.

I understand, I guess. It's part of the world we live in. Everyone wants to know the shortcut, because everyone uses the shortcut. And I guess it would be disingenuous to say that cycling has had nothing to do with losing weight. It obviously has. I lost a considerable amount of weight before I even bought the Peugeot, though, and I'm convinced that all these CrossFit crazy people are at least slightly misguided. I think keeping trim is mostly about eating right. Just look at that food pyramid the doctor always told you about, and that's sort of my guide.

Sometimes I do feel like the miles I put on my bike do, shall I say, allow for some slop in the system, however, and that brings me to chocolate, my true love. My middle guy's birthday cake request was chocolate cake with a ganache frosting. Yes, my 10-year-old requested ganache as his topping.

Who am I to argue? I went to my go-to. What recipe is that, I am always asked? I proudly tell them it's the "Perfectly Chocolate Cake" recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa label. I actually find product recipes to be some of the best there are. For example, there' s a great recipe for cookies on the back of Reese's Pieces.

I've often considered making a different chocolate cake, but the label really is truth in advertising: it's perfect, and I just can't bring myself to mess with it. There's an odd step at the end with boiling water that I don't understand, but why question it?

The only audible I called was my son's request for the ganache. I just poured hot cream over about 8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate, and that was it. I made the "Perfectly Chocolate Frosting," which is also on the back of the cocoa container, and used a whole cake's worth in between the cakes.

The cake is delicious. I know restaurant food is a different way of cooking, but this cake is something I would put up against anything in any bakery. I'm not bragging--it's simply that good. It's moist (I think that's the boiling water part), and unlike box cake, it tastes like chocolate. That's the thing about from-scratch baking with chocolate. The end result ends up tasting like chocolate. A little bitter, a lot sweet, a little coffee-ish.

So I had a huge slice and part of a few others, and it felt wonderful and right and why would you ever want to deprive yourself of something like that?

Check out the geese in the background. Coes Pond, Worcester, Mass.

Yes I rode yesterday and today, but not in some frantic race to balance out what I ate. I rode because I wanted to ride my bike. If it happens to absorb the dietary blow of eating wonderfully good food, then that's a bonus. I suppose that's one of the great things about cycling--it's a hobby that's actually incredibly good for you.

Racks and rides

 This morning marked the debut of an old rack I threw on the Pug. It's a nice Blackburn that I took off of the Fuji I rebuilt for my son a while back, and it went on pretty good, although the braze-ons on the bike were not threaded like they were on the Fuji, so I had to use a nut and bolt instead. It seemed to work out fine. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about a recent post on Lovely Bicycle; the discussion revolved around how short a bike ride can be while still being enjoyable. The comments were interesting--you can tell a lot about what kind of bike riders people are without them coming out and saying it, but it made me think about what kind of bike rider I am.

 When I got back on a bike about a year and a half ago, the big goal I had in mind was fitness. Walking simply wasn't enough of a workout, and I had never been able to make running work for me. Fitness was not a singular goal; I had always loved riding as a youth, and I was excited to feel those sensations again. As I kept riding, I wondered if the motivations and inspirations were changing. I don't think they were changing as much as they were fluctuating. What does it matter, anyway? If I'm out on my bike, that's the point. I think every time I go out for a ride I look forward to checking off the fitness box, but I also just look forward to riding my bike.


 The other night, for example, I had been jonesing all day to get out for a ride. I finally got out and rode through Kelley Square, up Vernon Street, and down Vernon Street. I felt great; God knows how many calories got burned, but those 7.5 miles made my mind and my body feel better.

 A few weeks ago, I tagged along with Worcester Loops, a sort of underground riding group (they tend to drink in parks after they finish), for a 13.7 mile loop around the city. It was thrilling, challenging, and invigorating. It was a beautiful, warm evening, and it was lovely to see parts of the city on a bike I had only ever driven through.

 I wasn't thinking about how many watts I was pushing out; I was having such great fun leaning into the Washington Square rotary like I was a MotoGP rider.

 One of the comments on the Lovely Bicycle blog post went something like "If it's not worth starting up Strava, it's just transportation cycling..." I've never done Strava, but when I read that I thought, hey, I resemble that remark! Most of my rides average about 5-8 miles. I'm probably putting in 40 miles a week. I simply don't have the long stretch of time that a longer ride requires. That commenter probably does as many miles in a week that I do in a day. But is he getting what he wants out of how much he rides? Am I getting as much as I want out of my rides? Hey, maybe the answer to both is yes. I think I have some longer riding in me, but right now, I don't know any better. I rode a few miles to the library with my cool new (to me) rack, dropped off a book, and rode home. It was immensely satisfying. I don't know what a 25-mile ride feels like, but at this point, it's all relative.